PostgreSQL Benchmarks: Apple ARM M1 MacBook Pro 2020

[japasneezemonk]

Ok, so for the past few days I have been searching for reviews that actually compare scenarios where I can both visualize the performance gains of the M1 chip and where the testing is at least tangentially related to my job. Most youtube reviewers are benchmarking video editing, testing video games, live streaming with it, etc... Basically, all things I will never do with my computer.
The only video/photo editing I have ever done is when I accidentally turned off live photos on my iPhone. ? ??

I finally found a review worth mentioning...

So how fast is the 2020 8GB MacBookPro 17,1? According to Smith from CrunchyData, it 's ridiculously fast.

If the performance per watt that Apple achieved in the entry level Macbook's foreshadows future CPU performance, then I might pass out from excitement.


In his blog post on CrunchyData he writes:

This week Apple started delivering Macs using their own Apple Silicon chips, starting with a Mac SOC named the M1. M1 uses the ARM instruction set and claims some amazing acceleration for media workloads. I wanted to know how it would do running PostgreSQL, an app that's been running on various ARM systems for years. The results are great!

32K single/92K all core is so fast for a laptop, I need to pull in some other hardware to put it into perspective. Here's a data table for all the results behind the graph, plus adding two generations of AMD's Ryzen desktop hardware:

And he continues by comparing the 8GB Macbook Pros performance to the Ryzen 3950X:

Of course Intel has Xeon processors that have pushed single core performance higher than these laptop-oriented Intel results. But look at that big cluster below 5 clients, showing how long they've been stuck in the same performance range when power and heat is limited. I mentioned last time Intel had only doubled performance in the 8 years of MacBook models I looked at, which is not industry leading performance.

AMD has been doing a lot better, getting their single core boost competitive in their 3000 series. Even last year's 3950X with its mandatory water cooling is barely faster than the M1 until you hit 8 clients.

If Apple can push the M1 design into larger amounts of memory and add a few more cores, it could be a fierce midsize server competitor.